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The  Northern  California  Indian  Association. 

THE  INDIAN  POPULATION  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Based  upon  an  address  by  Dr.  C.  Hart  Merriam  of  the 
Biological  Survey,  Washington, 


1834 — Indians  in  Califoniia 
1900 — Indians  in  Cali(o^\^ 

\ Decrease  p'T-  - 


10,000 

,17,000 

3,000 


The  answer  to  the  above  is  Vouftd  itl’a  recent- a'ddress  by  Dr.  C.  Hart 
Merriam,  of  the  Biological  Survey,  Was^bin^tonfD.  C.  This  well  known 
student  of  our  Indian  race  tells  uV  'tfii^nfter  ten  years  of  exhaustive  in- 
vestigation,  he  has  reached  the  following  conclusions  : 

“California,  at  the  time  of  its  discovery  was  more  densely  populated 
than  any  area  of  equal  size  in  North  America  Not  only  was  this  the  case, 
but  the  number  of  tribes  and  of  distinct  linguistic  stocks  within  its 
boundaries  nearly  equalled  those  of  all  the  rest  of  the  continent  north  of 
Mexico,” 

While  definite  statistics  exist  for  only  a limited  area,  viz:  the  Mission 
Strip,  we  have  a great  quantity  of  corroborative  evidence,  which  all 
points  in  the  one  direction. 

We  have,  first,  the  abundant  food  supply  throughout  the  State,  and 
the  benign  climatic  conditions,  both  of  which  tended  to  protect  and 
prolong  human  life.  “Doves,  ground  squirrels  and  rabbits,  antelope,  elk 
and  quail  abounded,  while  the  rivers  and  sloughs  swarmed  with  water- 
fowl,  and  teemed  with  mussels  and  fish.  Wild  oats  covered  the  land, 
and  acorns  abounded.”  Along  the  Sierras,  berry -bearing  manzanitas 
and  nut-bearing  Digger-pine  were  added  and  the  northern  rivers  ran  with 
salmon  and  eels. 

Another  form  of  evidence  is  found  throughout  the  State  in  the 
“hundreds  of  half  obliterated  sites  of  villages,  which  in  the  early  days 
were  thriving  communities.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
average  density  of  population  excluding  the  deserts,  and  high  boreal 
mountains,  was  at  least  as  great  as  that  of  the  Mission  Strip.” 

For  the  population  of  this  strip,  we  have  the  records  of  the  Padres, 


carefully  kept  from  1769-1834.  These  show  the  increase  in  numbers  of 
baptized  Indians,  until  in  1834,  the  year  of  the  secularization  of  the 
Missions,  the  number  was  30,000.  “In  the  early  years,  the  gentiles 
vastly  out  numbered  the  neophytes,  but  at  theclose  of  the  Mission  period, 
it  is  practically  certain  that  the  neophytes  largely  out  numbered  the 
gentiles.”  Dr.  Merriam  assumes  a ratio  of  1-4,  thus  giving  at  that  date, 
a population  of  40,000  for  the  Mission  Strip. 

The  area  included  in  the  Mission  Strip  is  1-5  of  the  habitable  area  ot 
the  State,  and  as  everything  indicates  an  equally  dense  population 
throughout  the  State,  we  have  a total  of  200,000  Indians,  to  which  may 
be  added  “the  Modoc,  Washoe,  Piute  and  Shoshone  of  the  region  east  of 
the  Sierras,  and  the  Mohave,  Chemahueve  and  Yuma  of  the  lower 
Colorado,  whose  members  living  within  the  State  must  have  numbered 
collectively,  at  least  10,000.”  Thus  we  have  a grand  total  of  210,000  at 
the  close  of  the  Mission  period,  1834  “It  may  be  urged  that  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  population  was  equally  dense  in  different  parts  of  the 
State  at  the  same  time.  Admitting  this,  there  is  surely  no  evidence  to 
the  contrary,  and  the  known  facts  point  to  a continuously  contempora- 
neous population  of  large  size  throughout  the  non-desert  parts  up  to  the 
time  each  area  in  turn  was  smitten  by  the  blight  of  foreign  invasion.  Tlie 
wide  spread  bounty  of  the  food  supply,  the  freedom  from  intertribal  wars, 
(except  in  the  Northwest)  and  the  probable  absence  of  epidemic  diseases 
until  introduced  by  the  whites,  all  point  in  this  direction.” 

“The  tremendous  decrease  that  has  taken  place  during  the  last 
century,  a decrease  amounting  to  the  complete  annihilation  of  scores  of 
tribes  and  the  reduction  to  scattered  remnants  of  scores  of  others,  is  due 
wholly  to  the  coming  of  the  white  man.  It  began  in  the  early  da3’s  of 
the  Mission  Padres  and  has  continued  to  the  present  time.” 

“While  in  the  main  gradual,  there  were  two  periods, in  which  its  ratio 
was  suddenly  and  greatly  accelerated.  The  first  of  these  was  the  period 
immediately  following  the  confiscation  of  the  Missions,  beginning  in  1834. 
The  second,  the  period  immediately  after  the  discovery  of  yold,  beginning 
in  1848.  The  secularization  of  the  Missions  turned  the  helpless  neopli3'tes 
out  into  the  world.  So  fatal  was  the  move  and  so  sudden  its  operation 
that  in  eight  years,  the  neophytes  had  dwindled  to  one-seventh  the 
number  present  in  1834,  leaving  only  4,450  at  the  Missions.  A genera- 
tion of  bondage  had  unfitted  them  for  self-support,  and  their  old  homes 
were  occupied  or  overrun  by  Spanish-Mexican  ranchers.  Individual 
Indians  migrated  to  other  tribes;  but  if  considerable  numbers  had  done 


so,  evidence  of  it  would  be  found  in  descendants  of  such  Indians  at  the 
present  day.  Such  are  not  found.  Therefore  it  is  conclusive  that  the 
great  bulk  of  Mission  Indians  perished  in  their  own  territory.”  The 
shrinkage  of  the  native  population  during  the  fifteen  3'ears  from  1834- 
1849  is  estimated  b}'  Dr.  Merriam  at  110,000,  which  is  at  the  appalling 
rate  of  7000  a year. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  1848  inaugurated  the  second  period  of 
destruction.  During  the  single  year  of  1849,  no  fewer  than  77,000  gold 
seekers  arrived.  “They  were  a heterogeneous  assemblage,  comprising 
many  good  and  noble  men,  but  also  thousands  of  the  rougher  and  more 
turbulent  classes,  not  excepting  criminals.”  A white  man’s  life  was  not 
safe  if  it  stood  in  the  path  of  greed,  how  much  less  an  Indian’s.  “Villages 
were  broken  up,  and  the  inhabitants  massacred  or  scattered,  men  and 
women  debauched  with  whiskey,  men  were  ruthlessly  killed,  women 
appropriated,  and  seeds  of  diseasesown  which  undermined  theconstitution 
of  succeeding  generations.”  Resistance  to  white  aggression  was  useless 
on  the  part  of  a peaceful  race  like  our  Indians,  but  if  they  had  been  Sioux 
or  Apaches  the  story  would  have  been  different,  and  their  decendants 
would  not  now  be  homeless  wanderers  in  the  land  of  their  ancestors. 
“The  two  destroying  armies,  Spanish-Mexican  ranchers,  and  American 
gold  seekers,  covered  practically  the  whole  of  California,  leaving  only  the 
deserts  on  the  east,  and  these  were  not  wholly  exempt.” 

“Later,  when  mining  gave  place  to  agriculture,  the  tillers  of  the  soil 
coveted  the  lands  of  the  Indians  and  proceeded  to  take  them,  without 
fear  of  interference  from  either  the  owners  or  the  law,  for  until  the  year 
1872,  in  cases  in  which  a white  person  was  a party,  the  testimony  of 
Indians — be  it  said  to  the  shame  of  California — was  not  admitted  in  any 
court  of  justice.  Down  to  recent  times,  therefore,  a white  man  could  con- 
fiscate the  home  of  an  Indian,  and  even  kill  the  occupant  without  danger 
of  punishment,  and  it  may  be  added,  that  in  spite  of  the  change  in  the 
law,  conditions  today  are  not  much  better  for  the  Indian.” 

“Evidence  of  all  this  cruelty  is  abundant.  It  relates  not  onl}'  to  the 
stead}’  decline  of  the  native  population  throughout  the  State,  but  also  to 
epidemics  of  smallpox  and  other  diseases,  to  the  demolition  of  sources  of 
food  supply,  to  the  burning  of  stores  of  food  laid  up  for  winter,  to  the 
confiscation  of  homes,  to  cold-blooded  massacres  by  both  Spaniards  and 
Americans,  to  raids  for  the  alleged  purpose  of  capturing  horse  thieves, 
but  in  most  instances  for  the  real  purpose  of  capturing  Indian  children 
and  young  women  for  servants,  and  to  the  destruction  of  life  attending 


the  capture  and  removal  of  Indians  to  Government  Reservations.”  One 
instance  of  incredible  outrage  which  took  place  in  1856  or  ’57  was  related 
to  Dr.  Merriam  by  eye  witnesses.  ‘‘A  gang  of  cattle  and  hog  men  took 
it  upon  themselves  to  drive  the  helpless  Taches  and  other  tribes  from 
Tulare  Lake  and  lower  Kings  River  to  the  Fresno  reservation.  Men, 
women  and  children,  including  the  sick  and  aged,  were  hurriedly  driven 
through  mud  and  water  during  the  height  of  the  rainy  season,  by  brutal 
men  on  horseback;  many  fell  out  and  perished  by  the  wa}',and  those  who 
reached  the  hated  destination  and  afterwards  escaped,  returned  to  find 
their  food  caches  appropriated  for  the  hogs,  and  on  making  their  presence 
known,  were  themselves  hunted  down  and  quietly  ‘taken  care  of  by  the 
whites.” 

‘Tn  September,  1850,  Adam  Johnson,  sub  agent  in  charge  of  the 
Valley  Indians,  wrote  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  that  within 
the  short  period  of  occupancy  by  the  whites,  the  red  man  had  fast  faded 
away;  many  had  died  of  disease;  others  had  fled  to  the  mountains  to 
enjoy  for  a brief  period  their  primeval  sports  of  hunting  and  fishing. 
Practically  all  the  Coast  Indians  had  gone;  of  the  numerous  tribes,  which 
only  a few  years  before  inhabitated  the  country  bordering  on  the  ba3’  of 
San  Francisco,  scarcely  an  individual  was  left.” 

Dr.  Merriam  closes  with  these  significant  words : 

‘‘The  principal  cause  of  the  appallingly  great  and  rapid  decrease  in 
the  Indians  of  California  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  the  number  directly 
slain  b\’  the  whites,  or  the  number  directly  killed  b\’  whiskey  or  disease, 
but  a much  more  subtle  and  dreadful  thing:  it  is  the  gradual  but 
progressive  and  relentless  confiscation  of  their  lands  and  homes,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  they  are  forced  to  seek  refuge  in  remote  and  barren 
localities,  often  far  from  water,  usually  with  an  impoverished  supplj’  of 
food,  and  not  infrequently  in  places  where  the  winterclimate  is  too  severe 
for  their  enfeebled  constitutions.  Victims  of  the  aggressive  selfishness  of 
the  whites,  outcasts  in  the  land  of  their  fathers,  outraged  in  their  most 
sacred  institutions,  weakened  in  body,  broken  in  spirit,  and  fully 
conscious  ot  the  hopelessness  of  their  condition,  must  we  w'onder  that 
the  wail  for  the  dead  is  often  heard  in  their  camps  and  that  the  survivors 
are  passing  swiftly  away  ? ” 

For  further  information  address 

Mr.  C.  E.  Kelsey, 

1127  South  First  St., 

San  Jose,  Cal. 


